What is The Z Section All About?

The name comes from a blog I started to supplement my reporting at The Daily Record, a local newspaper in Wooster, Ohio. When I am covering an event or interviewing a person, I take a lot of notes. A lot. I can never fit everything into a story. Sometimes the information is interesting, but not important. Other times the information is off-topic, but sort of important. The Z Section became a place for me to blog about the stuff that just did not fit into my news stories. Because newspaper sections are organized by letters of the alphabet, I chose the last letter to represent a sort of catch-all for my writings.

But, this blog has migrated beyond just what could not make it into the pages of a newspaper. My hope is The Z Section will provide an avenue for me to explore my passions regarding faith, writing, magic and photography. Simply stated, I want to see The Z Section become a platform to share these images and words.

I have always enjoyed writing. I pursued a journalism education and career for the simple reason I wanted to get paid to write. As long as I am writing, I am happy. What this means is those who read my newspaper stories need not worry about any bias of mine because I am content to write the stories of others and not push any agenda.

The News Journal in Daytona Beach, Fla., was the first newspaper for which I worked. I started out as a copy kid in 1988. It allowed me to see and learn about all facets of journalism, from reporting to layout to editing to photograpy to graphics to printing. In 2013, I will mark 25 years in the industry. I have been a copy kid, a paginator, a reporter, assistant editor and city editor.

As much as I love my job as a general assignment reporter at The Daily Record in Wooster, Ohio, and as much latitude as my editors give me, there are still some forms of writing not suitable for the newspaper market, especially deep discussions of theology, longer stories and opinion pieces.

One of the things with which I struggle is how to keep a narrow focus. My interests are so varied, and I want to comment on everything. So, focus will be a challenge.

There was a time when I wanted to write books for Sunday School lessons, communion meditations, offering meditations, sermon illustrations from the early days of the Restoration Movement, but there never seemed to be the time.

My desire is to find a way to share some of those stories, articles and columns here so I can slowly and, more importantly, methodically put together the pieces that might one day be collected in book form.

How will that happen? The same way you eat an elephant: One bite at a time.

Up next: Can can an old, blind, deaf dog teach us about God? The answer might surprise you.